Drugs-of-Abuse Testing

Abstract

Testing for drugs of abuse in Europe generally follows many of the trends that have been observed in the United States in recent times. However, adoption of drug testing in Europe as a whole is still considered to be around 10 yr behind that of the United States. Noticeably, there are vast differences within the individual countries in relation to end-users and legislation. In the health care arena, hospitals and treatment clinics are among the largest consumers of drug-testing kits. In the non-health care sector, criminal justice services and the workplace represent the high-volume end-users. At present, urine continues to be the most popular screening test matrix across Europe, with blood the preferred specimen for judicial and forensic confirmatory applications. Although more recently introduced matrices such as oral fluid and saliva have yet to gain widespread acceptance, they are expected to play an increasingly important role in the future.